LA County approves temporary ban on rent hikes for mobile home spaces

Los Angeles is giving a break to renters of mobile homes.

The county board approved a measure on Tuesday that bans rent hikes greater than 3 percent at mobile home parks in unincorporated L.A. County. The ban will start in early October and span six months, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

The temporary measure is meant to be a placeholder while the county debates permanent rent control for mobile home spaces.

Mobile home tenants usually own the physical mobile homes but rent spaces at parks. The temporary measure only applies to those with leases less than 12 months in length. It will cover an estimated 8,500 tenants at 86 mobile parks. Park owners will also be able to appeal for rent hikes higher than 3 percent, if it’s needed to get a reasonable return.

L.A. County last had a mobile home rent control ordinance in effect between 1988 and 1995. The City of Los Angeles’s Rent Control Ordinance is in effect on all mobile home spaces that were built before 1986 and leased for terms of less than 12 months.

California voters will decide the fate of a statewide rent control measure, the Costa-Hawkins Act, on this November’s ballot. Real estate firms have spent millions to fight the measure.

After the measure was preliminarily approved in August, Janice Hahn, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Supervisors, said that the temporary measure was meant to combat potential hikes in anticipation of a permanent rent control law. Hahn called mobiles homes “sort of the last bastion of affordable housing in L.A. County,” according to the Los Angeles Times. [LADN] – Dennis Lynch